Steve Otto, the R&A’s technical director and one of the principal architects of the century-old driving distance study, says the plan to reduce distance through a shorter golf ball, officially announced in late 2023, is a deliberate and scientifically rigorous process. In turn, any potential decision to reduce driver distance would be equally robust and is always on the governing body’s mind. (The USGA is the governing body for the United States and Mexico, and the R&A governs the rest of the world.)
Otto addressed attendees of the 2024 World Golf Scientific Congress at Loughborough University in England on July 11 in a presentation detailing the scientific efforts behind the R&A’s research into all phases of the game, not just distance. He stressed that there is no denying that distance has increased and that the driver remains “a topic of interest.”
Otto, however, believes that any changes in driver size, forgiveness or elasticity will likely only be implemented at the professional level. “We’ve had smaller clubs made with a lower MOI (less forgiveness),” he says. “It wasn’t pretty, but for the elite golfer, it’s always an option.”
Otto added that any changes would depend on what happens after the elite players have played with the shorter ball for a period. “Before the (The return to normal of golf balls was announced last December), we talked to a lot of players on the tour and a lot of them said, ‘You’re talking about the wrong topic; you should talk to the club instead.’ Of course, I think if we had just talked to the club, we would have gotten almost as much criticism saying, ‘Why don’t you play the ball?’
Otto believes it is important to get the balloon implementation schedule for 2028-2030 right first: “You can’t expect the industry to do both of these things at the same time,” he says.
The club, he said, would be harder to regulate on several levels. “We have improved people’s understanding of what we do. They are looking more closely and we are getting a lot more questions about the data. Any decision we make about a club will have to be subject to a higher level of data scrutiny.”
That means any rule aimed at elite players and aimed at the driver would have to take into account how the game is played. “We need to look at the secondary elements of the data to see if we see a change in player behavior,” Otto says. “That could lead us to say these clubs are too forgiving. We need to give them ones that are more punishing, so if they can hit it down the middle incredibly fast, that’s a real skill. We need to look a little more at the dynamics and balance of skills in the game.”
Otto remains committed to recalibrating distance to the driving distance of elite golfers. The change to a conforming (and shorter) ball will take place from 2028 for elite competitions and will apply to all golfers from 2030. New balls subject to conformity from 2028 must pass the global distance standard at the new higher speed. He says the general trend of increasing distance over the last century clearly shows that change is needed.
“Most people, if you put them in a cold, dark room, would admit that the overall distance has increased, but we’re still discussing bits of data, and we’re trying to engage people in those discussions to understand their perspectives, but, in reality, the decision has been made.”
The next step is to implement the golf ball backswing system. As part of the new compliance test, swing speed has been increased from 5 to 125 miles per hour. According to USGA and R&A data, this would result in a 15-yard reduction in driving distance for the fastest male professionals.
Otto pointed out that Grant Moir, executive director of governance, and Mark Grattan, director of equipment standards, at the R&A, had held discussions with ball manufacturers about the regression. He said early research into manufacturers’ prototype balls and the number of patents on golf balls made it clear to him that the four-year transition period was sufficient.
“We have plenty of time to talk to them and work this out,” he says. “We don’t sit in our ivory tower and say, ‘You have to do this or that.’ Grant Moir and Mark Grattan interact a lot with manufacturers around the world.”
Although several manufacturers have questioned the need for a distance reduction, the PGA of America and the PGA Tour have yet to publicly adopt the shorter ball that is expected to be used in 2028. As Otto says, “It’s not going to work if we sit in St. Andrews and do nothing.”
This transition period brings its own challenges, given that recreational golfers will still be able to play and will likely demand faster balls for their use. (To be clear, governing bodies have produced research showing that the impact on driving distance for most recreational golfers will be relatively minimal, typically around 10 feet, far less than the average variance in any golfer’s distance variability.) Still, Otto doesn’t think it will lead to a fragmented game once ball backlash is implemented. Ultimately, he doesn’t think there will be hoarding or a substantial market for balls that don’t conform to the new standard.
